Dangerous waters: Pizza!

By Annette Herrick

Over the last several months I have been dining out with three of my personal training clients. This is a review of our third meal with Jen Ament (the food snob) Liz Woody (the meat and potatoes girl) and Katie Schielke (the meek one). We're on a mission to eat out at all kinds of tempting places, ones you wouldn't even consider healthy without totally blowing it. The goal is not to be perfect, pious, or anorexic. The goal is to find ways to eat out because eating out is such a regular habit of ours.

The food snob has lost 20 pounds and wants to lose 12 more. The meat and potatoes girl has high blood pressure and enjoys comfort foods like Tater Tot casserole. The meek one wants to lose 5-8 pounds. Katie can quote all of the benefits of eating a "whole-food" diet. But when she's out with a group who are ordering burgers and hot wings she hates to make a scene and goes along with group.

As the meek one points out, "This was the most mixed experience we've had yet. We headed into dangerous waters; pizza! Talarico's Pizza at the Junction."

Three out of four of us (not little miss you know who, the meat and potatoes girl; too weird for her) were excited to have a slice of the Oglio D'Avio, a slice of heaven that is topped with garlic, goat cheese, mozzarella, and arugula. Yet in our mission to alter the menu to our healthier palette we managed to obliterate the piece of art that this slice of pizza was!

Problem number one, our waitress in her eagerness to make us happy suggested the flat bread. We all thought that was a great idea until it came out. I swear it wasn't any more flat than their standard crust.

Problem number two, the taste. Miss food snob says:

"The mixed green salad tasted great. The flat bread, well, tasted like flat bread." And when she was finished she said, "I left half of the coffee-table-book sized piece of uber pizza on my plate."

Problem number three. Some of us are hyper sensitive to cow's milk for health and global consciousness and we try to limit our intake. Those of us who were abiding by this higher level asked for "no mozzarella" and kept the goat cheese. The end result; flat, just like the bread.

If I could do it all over here's what I would do. Order a salad. The Caesar dressing (stalks of lettuce, not chopped) at Talarico's is amazing and the mixed greens are great too. My philosophy is the more crunching on vegetables even if it is in "fatty" dressing, the less crunching on less desirable food like pepperoni, salami, and cheese on the antipasto appetizer. After the salad, I would split the coffee-table-book-sized pizza with a dinner companion.

Problem number four; The Meek One's slice was apparently having problems in the kitchen. When it finally arrived they forgot to leave off the mozzarella and in the meantime we had already devoured ours.

You see? This is what can happen when you're in a restaurant making all kinds of changes. The transferring of information from you to the waitress, the cook, and back is like playing "telephone" when you were a kid. The end result nothing like the original order. Have you ever ordered fast food in the drive-through and gotten home to find hamburger instead of chicken? Ranch instead of honey mustard? I'm sure you have. It's very unsatisfying!

The food snob found she is making a breakthrough in her awareness level.

"My main goal this round was to focus on stopping before filling myself to where I feel gross and mad at myself for not stopping earlier. I think I tend to forget it takes a while for you to feel full. So I knew I needed to order a big salad first. I really liked the sound of the iceberg lettuce wedge with shallots, bacon, and bleu cheese. Full on Americana at it's best. Yet more fatty and less green than I need. And if I want to lose 12 more pounds, I need to continue eating my greens!

"I ordered a mixed green salad and a flatbread Oglio D'Avio, with light mozarella. When done eating I felt slightly bloated and too carbo-loaded. I left half on my plate and felt a tad overly satisfied. Next time I will aspire to feel just satisfied.

The meat and potatoes girl also hit us with some big news. This meeting will be her last as the Meat and Potatoes Girl. This woman who enjoys the comfort in her classic tastes has ventured out of her ways quite enough, thank you!

"What I will take with me is that when I go out to eat it is my splurge time, it is quite possible to order items that are good, and good for you."

What we will take from her is her portion control. While most of us at the table would probably agree we eat a higher quality of food like darker greens and organic whole grain breads, the Meat and Potatoes Girl practiced portion control without even thinking twice about it. She never had to talk herself into taking home a doggie bag. She just did it without even thinking. And while she is the thinnest of all of us, that is probably the reason why. So in this case there is a lot to be said about portion control.

So in the end of our Dining Fit at Talarico's we learned how to order pizza without totally blowing it: To make it easy, eat a great salad, and split the pizza with a friend. Harmless! Though we will miss our friend the meat and potatoes girl, we have plans to see how the French stay so thin. We have invited a French lady to dine with us. Stay tuned for more dining fit and hilarious escapades at the table.

Annette Herrick may be reached at annette@fitnessforvitality.com